Letters to the Editor

As an alumnus of both UR and the CT, as well as the current editor of a weekly newspaper, I was extremely disappointed to read Editor Chadwick Schnee’s admission that a March 25 editorial observer by Kim Gorode entitled “C-SPAN has a place too,” plagiarized much of its content and language from a Baltimore Sun column.However, I am also alarmed that in his apology, Schnee merely refers to the incident as a “learning opportunity” without detailing the specific steps he has taken to ensure that this never happens again. His mea culpa rings even more hollow when I noticed that immediately below his explanation in the April 15 issue, another editorial observer by Gorode appears. How can Schnee expect anyone to take him seriously if the newspaper has allowed Gorode to continue to write for it? Plagiarism is not merely a journalistic crime, it is an academic one as well. When I did a search for it on UR’s Web site, I found 294 references to it in the context of academic honesty – everything from university policies to warnings on course syllibi.Being a student, how can Gorode not have understood what intellectual theft was? As importantly, why does the CT not punish one of its staffers for an act that would result in her failing a course or even being expelled from UR if she had committed it in the classroom?If he does not have the courage or wisdom to ask for Gorode’s resignation or initiate disciplinary actions against her, Schnee should at least have the courtesy to personally resign to spare the CT and UR’s reputation further shame.-Patrick O’Mahen Class of 2001